This invention is generally directed to a system for encasing materials, such as poultry or other materials, in plastic bags. The invention is directed at packaging poultry such as whole dressed chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys, but can be used as well for poultry parts, such as turkey breasts, for whole-muscle meats, such as hams, for other food items such as game, cheeses, and sausages, and for non-food items as well.
The food industry sometimes sells items as described above in plastic bags. It is preferable in some instances to evacuate the bag before sealing it, for both marketability reasons and health reasons. In general, whole dressed birds are placed in a plastic bag, the bag is drawn closed by gathering the mouth of the bag into a neck around a nozzle, the neck of the bag is held around the nozzle by the jaws of a clipping apparatus, a vacuum is drawn on the nozzle to remove excess air from the bag, causing the bag to collapse around the bird, and a clip is applied to the neck of the bag to seal the bag. A representative packaged assembly 20 of a whole dressed bird 22 encased in a plastic bag 24 and sealed therein by a clip 26, as is known in the prior art, is shown in FIG. 1.
The process as described above has been automated, for example by the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,085, Device for the Evacuation, Clipping, and Trimming of Bag-Like Packages, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. An apparatus of this type generally comprises a rotating circular table, a plurality of radially-oriented evacuation nozzles, and a clamping means at each nozzle. A bagged product, such as a dressed goose 22 in a plastic bag 24, is applied to each of the vacuum nozzles at a first position. As each vacuum nozzle travels circularly, the clamping means closes to seal the 24 bag to the nozzle, the vacuum nozzle evacuates the bag 24, a clip 26 is applied, the excess bag or “tail” is removed, the clamping means opens, and the now packaged goose 20 is removed from the table.
The bagged package 20, as this process has been used in the prior art, rests on the rotating circular table, which is below the level of the vacuum nozzle. Accordingly, the neck of the bag 24 always is located above the packaged item 20 and the clip 26 is applied above the packaged item 20, as shown in FIG. 1. Some consumers find this appearance objectionable for some types of food items. Those food items would present a more pleasing appearance if the clip 26 were not visible from the front of the packaged assembly 20, as shown in, for example, FIGS. 2A and 2B. For other food items, the appearance as shown in FIG. 1 is satisfactory.
Accordingly, a need exists for an apparatus and method to package whole dressed birds or parts in plastic bags, without the clip showing. A further need exists for an apparatus to package whole dressed birds or parts in plastic bags, the apparatus being adaptable between packaging with the clip showing or without the clip showing. The present invention meets this need.